CISSE Intermediate Level

Research and Project Management flashcards

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What are PRINCE2's seven guiding principles?

1. Continued business justification: the project must stay justified throughout its life. 2. Learn from experience. 3. Defined roles and responsibilities. 4. Manage by stages. 5. Manage by exception: escalate only when a tolerance is exceeded. 6. Focus on products. 7. Tailor to suit the project environment.

What do payback, ROI, NPV and IRR each measure in a business case?

Payback: how long cumulative benefits take to equal the initial cost. ROI: net benefit / cost, as a percentage. NPV: future cash flows discounted to present value, less the cost, so it allows for the time value of money. IRR: the discount rate at which NPV equals zero.

What does the scope (iron) triangle show?

Time, cost and scope/quality are interdependent constraints. Changing any one, such as compressing the timeline, cutting the budget or adding scope, forces a trade-off in at least one of the other two. Scope cannot be added for free.

What is the difference between a work breakdown structure and a product breakdown structure?

WBS: decomposes the project's activities (work) into progressively smaller tasks, down to pieces small enough to estimate and assign. PBS: decomposes the products (deliverables) the project must produce. PRINCE2 prefers to start from the PBS, its focus on products principle.

What are the four estimating methods, and when does each suit?

Expert judgement: an experienced person estimates; small tasks or scarce historical data. Analogous: a similar past project's actual figures; early estimates with limited detail. Parametric: a statistical relationship such as cost per screen built; repetitive, well-understood work. Bottom-up: estimate each WBS work package and sum; detailed later estimates, most accurate but most time-consuming.

What is the difference between effort and elapsed time? Give an example.

Effort: the actual work a task needs, such as 5 person-days. Elapsed time: the calendar duration, which can be longer if the resource is part-time or the task waits on a dependency. A 5 person-day task done half-time takes 5 / 0.5 = 10 elapsed working days.

In earned value analysis, what are PV, EV and AC, and how are SV and CV calculated?

PV: budgeted cost of work scheduled to date. EV: budgeted cost of work actually completed to date. AC: what has actually been spent to date. SV = EV - PV: positive is ahead of schedule, negative behind. CV = EV - AC: positive is under budget, negative over.

What are the four risk responses?

Avoid: change the plan to eliminate the risk entirely. Reduce: act to lower its likelihood or impact. Transfer: pass it to another party, such as through insurance or a supplier contract. Accept: consciously live with it, typically where a response would cost more than the risk itself.

What is the difference between quality assurance and quality control?

Quality assurance: process-focused, making sure the processes used to build the product can produce a quality result. Quality control: product-focused, checking the actual product against its requirements.

How do fixed-price and time and materials contracts differ, and who bears the estimation risk under each?

Fixed price: a set total price regardless of actual effort. The supplier bears the estimation risk. Suits well-defined scope. Time and materials: payment for actual hours and materials used. The buyer bears the estimation risk. Suits less well-defined or evolving scope.

What is the difference between a project, a programme and a portfolio?